Advertisers bail as Laura Ingraham goes on vacation
Advertisers continued to exit Laura Ingraham's show on Fox News even as the host takes a weeklong break from the network.
Companies have pulled advertising from Ingraham's show after she criticized a Parkland school shooting survivor. Ingraham announced on Friday that she would take a vacation the following week to celebrate Easter with her family. A Fox News spokesperson said Ingraham's vacation was pre-planned.
The timing echoed events of April 2017 when, embroiled in an advertiser boycott, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly announced he would be taking vacation for Easter. He was later fired by the network.
At least 15 companies so far have pulled their ads from Ingraham's Fox News program after she feuded with a survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting over Twitter. Those include Bayer; Ruby Tuesday; Liberty Mutual Insurance; The Atlantis Paradise Island resort; Office Depot; Jenny Craig; Hulu; Nutrish; TripAdvisor; Expedia; Wayfair; Stitch Fix; Nestlé; Johnson & Johnson and Miracle-Ear.
Ingraham's spat with David Hogg
Last Wednesday, Ingraham posted a mocking tweet of high school senior David Hogg, taunting him for not getting into some colleges he had applied to. In response, Hogg tweeted a list of advertisers on Ingraham's show and called on followers to contact them.
Nutrish was the first to say it would stop advertising on Ingraham's program, and other brands followed.
Ingraham apologized in a tweet the following day, citing "the spirit of Holy Week," and invited Hogg to appear on her show.
Hogg dismissed her statement. "She only apologized after we went after her advertisers," he told the New York Times. Ingraham has stayed silent since her tweet on Thursday.
Ingraham fans took to social media to call for boycotts of the companies that moved to pull their ads, launching the hashtag #IStandWithLaura. One user posted that he was systematically removing his reviews from TripAdvisor.
"The Ingraham Angle," which airs daily at 10 p.m. Eastern time, was the no. 4 cable show on TV last month, according to AdWeek, both in terms of total viewers and viewers in the 25-to-54 demographic, a coveted age group for cable news advertisers. According to AdAge, Ingraham bested MSNBC's "The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell" in February among adults 25 to 54.
Fox News, which has not offered a statement, has faced a number of ad boycotts in recent years. After Sean Hannity supported Alabama judge Roy Moore in his campaign for the U.S. senate, five companies removed their ads, including Keurig. Hannity fans then launched a boycott of Keurig posting videos of themselves destroying their coffee makers on social media. The company's CEO later apologized. And former host Bill O'Reilly lost dozens of advertisers for his show after the New York Times reported that he and Fox News had agreed to a series of secret settlements over harassment allegations.
It's unclear how much of an impact the advertiser exodus will have on Ingraham's program. The 15 who have left are a small portion of the 129 companies that have run ads on her program in the last weeks of March, reports Media Matters, a left-leaning media activist group.
Following are the companies that have distanced themselves from Ingraham's program as of Monday afternoon.
Bayer
The pharmaceutical company said Saturday evening that it would stop advertising on Ingraham's show. "We have stopped advertising on Laura Ingraham and we have no plans to resume any time in the future," Bayer tweeted.
Miracle-Ear
"As of this morning, we have removed The Ingraham Angle from our TV advertising plan," the hearing-aid maker said on Friday, noting that it might take a few days for the change to go into effect.
Liberty Mutual Insurance
The insurer on Friday said that no more ads were scheduled for Ingraham's show because her comments were "inconsistent with our values as a company, especially when it comes to treating others with dignity and respect."
Ruby Tuesday
"We have no further airings of our ad scheduled on Laura Ingraham's program," the restaurant chain said Friday in response to a customer tweet.
Atlantis, Paradise Island
The Bahamas resort told The Hill on Friday it "decided to remove all brand advertising tied to the program."
"Although we are an organization that believes in freedom of expression, we do not condone discrimination, bullying, mockery or harmful behavior of any kind," the company told The Hill in a statement.
Jenny Craig
The weight-loss company told HuffPost on Friday, "We have decided to take steps to discontinue advertising on this show."
Nutrish
"We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham's program," the pet food company tweeted Thursday morning.
Hulu
The streaming service, which has 17 million subscribers, tweeted its decision Thursday night.
"We'd like to confirm that we are no longer advertising on Laura Ingraham's show and are monitoring all of our ad placements carefully," the company said.
Hulu is partially owned by 21st Century Fox, Fox News' parent company.
TripAdvisor
"TripAdvisor believes strongly in the values of our company, especially the one that says, 'We are better together,'" a company spokesperson said in a statement sent to CBS News.
"We also believe Americans can disagree while still being agreeable, and that the free exchange of ideas within a community, in a peaceful manner, is the cornerstone of our democracy," it said.
"We do not, however, condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster. In our view, these statements focused on a high school student, cross the line of decency," the statement added.
Wayfair
The online home-goods retailer told HuffPost, "The decision of an adult to personally criticize a high school student who has lost his classmates in an unspeakable tragedy is not consistent with our values. We do not plan to continue advertising on this particular program."
Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix, the clothing subscription company, tweeted: "We did not make the decision to drop our ads from The Ingraham Angle lightly, but believe it was the right thing to do after statements from the host crossed the line of decency."
Expedia
"We have pulled the advertising," the travel site told CNBC.
Nestlé
The food conglomerate told HuffPost, "We have no plans to buy ads on the show in the future."
Johnson & Johnson
The personal goods giant told HuffPost it "will pull advertising from Ms. Ingraham's show."
Office Depot
Office Depot has pulled their ads from the show, The Daily Beast reported.
This story has been updated to correct information on ratings for "The Ingraham Angle" and to add companies who have announced they would pull advertising.
